HIQA has published a National Standard on information requirements for ePrescribing in a community setting.

This National Standard defines the information requirements for the implementation of community-based ePrescribing and dispensing in Ireland. Information requirements are a minimum set of data items that are recommended for implementation in information systems that create and transfer information to support the delivery of safe and quality care to patients. The inclusion of data in the minimum set of data is determined by its clinical relevancy and the potential for the data to improve patient safety in a collaborative care environment.

HIQA’s Director of Health Information and Standards, Rachel Flynn, said: “A national, community-based ePrescribing programme can deliver significant benefits for patients, prescribers and pharmacists. It can improve patient safety considerably by reducing cases of incorrect dosage, incorrect medication and adverse drug interactions.”

The Sláintecare Implementation Strategy published in August 2018 prioritises the implementation of community-based ePrescribing to support information sharing, patient empowerment and the development of digital services.

Ms Flynn continued: “A national ePrescribing service can also benefit prescribers by enabling the safe electronic sharing of prescription information. Prescribers can receive notifications when a patient collects a prescription from a pharmacy. Electronic prescribing can improve the efficiency of process within pharmacies thus allowing pharmacists give to more time with patients.”

"The National Standard published today is a key building block in the development of ePrescribing in Ireland and will ultimately help improve patient safety.”
ENDS

For further information contact:
Marty Whelan, Head of Communications and Stakeholder Engagement, HIQA,

01 814 7480 / 086 2447 623,

mwhelan@hiqa.ie

Notes to the editor:

• National Standard on information requirements for national community-based ePrescribing can be found at the link below
• ePrescribing involves the generation of the prescription by GPs, the transmission of prescriptions electronically from GP to pharmacy over national networks and a pharmacist dispensing the prescription.
• ePrescribing is used to describe all aspects of the generation and transfer of prescriptions electronically using a dedicated system, whether in paper or electronic form, rather than faxing or emailing the prescription.
• The National ePrescribing Programme was announced at the first eHealth Ireland summit in June 2015.
• The Sláintecare Implementation Strategy prioritises the implementation of community-based ePrescribing to support information sharing, patient empowerment and the development of digital services.
• A six week public consultation was undertaken to inform the development of the standards.
• The standard was developed in conjunction with the eHealth Standards Advisory Group.